Maintaining assets at the required condition needs funding: in preparing for the 2021 Spending Review, the Agency estimated it needed funding of £235 million a year to keep 98% of its assets at their required condition. Defra decided not to fund the Agency to maintain assets to 98%, instead it set the Agency’s maintenance funding at £201 million which should have allowed it to maintain 94.5% of these assets at required condition.12 The Agency told us it prioritises maintenance of assets based on those which are most risk for the public or those which are more critical.13